Casting directors probably have one of the most important jobs in Hollywood. When it comes to getting somebody right for a role, all sorts of things have to be taken into consideration, like if they have the right look, or if they’re a cokehead who might just not turn up on set or whether or not they’re Jennifer Lawrence (so hot right now). Sometimes, casting directors take a chance and get it spot on – Heath Ledger as The Joker, anyone? Other times, they not only get it wrong. They get it really, really, weird.
With his indie credentials firmly established by neo-noir debut Brick and talents further supported by 2008’s The Brothers Bloom, writer-director Rian Johnson returns with his take on the sci-fi genre. A time travel chase film injected with both an underlying sense of moral precariousness and welcome comic relief, the set-up isn’t new, but the delivery certainly is. With Johnson deftly combining influences alongside his own discernible flair, Looper may call-back to cinema’s past, but its own modernity is never in question.
Everyone loves a time-travel movie. Everyone. It’s the ultimate dream; to be able to flit back through time and tell your younger self to stop after the sixth Jägerbomb; to flit forward in time and find out the lottery numbers; to visit the dinosaurs (ill-advised) or our inevitably dystopian future (iller-advised). Of course, it’s all fantasy, and the fact that it’s impossible causes all sorts of consternation among nerds, who try and puzzle the various internal logics of such films until the wee small hours. Time-travel movies are great; but they’re also bloody confusing.
“Every second that passes is BAD.” Then stop talking nonsense, Jeff Daniels!
Snipe London
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